Student Edge: The Beauty of Questioning Privilege
Since her first year at MHC, Frazier has worked with low-income youth in nearby Holyoke, and is planning a career in teaching and community development. “I’ve known what I’m passionate about for pretty much the whole time,” says Frazier, who majored in international relations, with a minor in education. “Youth and development found me. I enjoy the honesty the kids present in my life, and I just want to be part of that.”
Thanks to a first-year MHC Community-Based Learning seminar, Frazier allied herself with what is now River Valley Academy in Holyoke, working with students who have behavior problems and learning differences. “I fell in love with it,” she says of that experience, as well as the work she later did with the Holyoke Youth Task Force and the after-school program, Youth Rap.
“[I was] able to translate my education into action. It’s not like I went in there expecting to save anyone [but] rather to build a community which I envision for myself.” Many schools in low-income communities like Holyoke lack adequate resources and MHC students can provide all kinds of help, she says. But to be effective, they must confront their privileged status.
“You have to constantly analyze your motives for why you’re doing what you’re doing,” Frazier, who is of Filipino origin, explains. “You have to have a completely open mind, and not be judgmental. The role that the community organization provides for you is a mutually beneficial partnership. There’s no ‘empowerer’ and empowered.”
Sandra Lawrence, associate professor of psychology and education, is one of several professors who Frazier says recognized her potential and helped push her forward. “I have no idea how she managed to spend as much time in the community of Holyoke working with urban youth and still achieve high grades in all of her courses, but she did,” Lawrence recalls. “Her curiosity ...[and] enthusiasm ... are contagious.”
This fall, Frazier begins a two-year stint with Teach for America in New York City; she hopes eventually to go to graduate school in community development. Motivated, confident, and a self-described “obnoxious optimist,” Frazier says and does what she thinks is right and then moves on. After all, she points out, “No change has come from people who don’t take a risk once in a while.”—M.H.B.
